[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 206 (Thursday, December 21, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S19080-S19081]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          THE BALANCED BUDGET

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, we have heard some talk on the floor today 
about we should have a balanced budget within 7 years. I would 
certainly acknowledge that. But I think the thing we should be 
concerned about today is getting Government back to work.
  There have been statements made by the Republican leadership that 
those 250,000 Federal employees who are on furlough will be paid. Well, 
if they are going to be paid, it seems logical to me that the taxpayers 
would be getting a much better deal if they were doing something for 
their pay, like maybe doing their job.
  I would suggest that just sheer logic tells me that, if the 
Republican leadership said that the furloughed employees are going to 
be paid their wages for not working, that we should go the next step 
and allow them to work so that the taxpayers are getting their money's 
worth. This way they are getting a real bad deal. The taxpayers are 
told that the parks are going to be closed. There are various Federal 
agencies where 250,000 people work and are not going to be operable but 
the people are going to be paid anyway. If I were a taxpayer, I would 
say that does not sound like a real good deal for me.
  So I say for the third time here in the last few minutes, if the 
Republican leadership has said they will pay the furloughed workers, it 
seems to me logical that we should get them all back to work.
  Mr. DORGAN. Will the Senator yield on that point?
  Mr. REID. I am happy to yield for a question.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I would like to ask the Senator a question 
about that because I feel much as he does--that somehow, sometime 
today, or immediately, if possible, we ought to have the Federal 
workers come back to work and end the shutdown and still continue to 
negotiate on a balanced budget agreement.
  It does not make any sense to see a circumstance where Federal 
workers--some 300,000--will not be allowed to come to work but will 
still be paid for work they did not do. And the bill is going to be 
paid by the American taxpayer.
  I ask the Senator from Nevada, is not this a period several days 
before Christmas where it is for most a magic time, a time of family, 
reflection, lights, music, worship, and now we have a circumstance 
where we have 1 million checks that have been written sitting in a 
warehouse here in Washington, DC, that are supposed to go out to the 
veterans and are supposed to be in their mailboxes on January 1 for 
veterans and survivors? Unless a continuing resolution is passed 
immediately, that is not going to happen. We have 4 million children 
whose AFDC payments for their daily needs relates to the question of 
whether the continuing resolution will be passed so the money and the 
resources will be available for them.
  You can imagine what will happen if on January 2 or 3 a veteran's 
survivor expecting a check needing to pay the rent or to buy food or to 
provide for their children's needs discovers the check is not there 
because of this shutdown. That is why I hope somehow this evening all 
of this gets unlocked and we can pass a CR. Does the Senator from 
Nevada see any reason that it provides any leverage for anyone to 
continue to have a Government shutdown in which people are sent home, 

[[Page S19081]]
some 300,000, but yet we pay them for work they did not do? Is there 
anybody that gets penalized other than the American taxpayer with this 
kind of strategy?
  Mr. REID. I would say to my friend from North Dakota, they are being 
penalized, the taxpayers that is, to the tune of $40 million a day. 
That is my understanding of the wages that are going to be paid for not 
doing the work. So you multiply just a little bit the time they have 
already been out of work--this is counted on Saturdays and Sundays. 
They get paid no matter what day it is--2 days, 80, 120, 160. It gets 
up pretty quickly.
  That is where we are now. And the American taxpayer gets nothing in 
the way of services. We have here in Washington now one of the finest 
art exhibits to have been here in decades, the greatest still lifes 
probably ever painted, but it is only going to be here a short time and 
people have come from all over the United States to see that. They 
cannot see it. But yet those people who should be working are not 
working but are being paid, and the taxpayer gets a real bad deal on 
that.
  Mr. BUMPERS. Will the Senator yield for an observation?
  Mr. REID. I would be happy to yield to my friend without losing my 
right to the floor.
  Mr. BUMPERS. It has been mentioned once or twice, but I do not think 
the full impact of the shutdown of the Government has really been 
accurately described. If you were one of the 260,000 people sitting 
home and being paid for nothing, first of all, that is demeaning, to 
ordinary people. They would much rather be working, despite the fact 
they are sitting home and being paid to sit home. But the dimension 
that I am going to mention is here is the most joyous season of the 
year, Christmas, that everybody looks forward to and among the 260,000 
workers at home, I promise you, a lot of them live from paycheck to 
paycheck, and a lot of them were depending on spending money for gifts 
for their children for Christmas. And you know, sometimes I think the 
Congress ought to be charged with child abuse because a lot of children 
are not going to have the Christmas they otherwise would have.
  I am not saying this is going to be massive, but obviously a lot of 
people are affected by the fact that they do not have a paycheck and 
therefore cannot spend any money unless they have a credit card that 
has a little bit left on the limit. But it is one of the most 
unfathomable things--I have been here 21 years. This is the most 
irresponsible, unfathomable, irrational things I have ever seen in my 
21 years here. What on Earth are we doing?
  Mr. REID. I would say to my friend from Arkansas, I repeat, 
especially when the Republican leadership has said these 250,000 or 
260,000 people are going to be paid anyway. So would not the next step 
be to say, OK, you are going to get paid; go to work?
  Mr. BUMPERS. It is an interesting thing about how we are cutting 
everybody under the shining Sun in the interest of a balanced budget 
but willing in the interest of some kind of unfathomable, absolutely 
incomprehensible to me ideology that says you cannot keep the 
Government going and talk about balancing the budget at the same time. 
It is a nondebate about whether we are going to balance the budget or 
not. That is a no-brainer. Everybody agrees on that point.
  What we are arguing about mostly is the tax cut. If the Republicans 
would forgo all or just a significant portion of the tax cut, this is a 
done deal. Everybody knows that we have to cut Medicare. Everybody 
knows that we are going to have to slow the escalation of Medicaid 
costs. But I am not for slowing the environment and I am not for 
slowing education, an observation that has been made on this floor time 
and time again and just seems so patently clear and obvious, and yet I 
pick up the paper and it never points it out except ``Congress Bogged 
Again,'' ``Congress Can't Gets Its Act Together,'' blah, blah, blah. 
And all you have to do is sit down and say let us crank the Government 
up, pass a continuing resolution. After all, a continuing resolution 
funds these agencies at a dramatic discount from what they have been 
getting.
  Mr. REID. Twenty-five percent.
  Mr. BUMPERS. I thank the Senator for yielding. We can sit here I 
guess and engage in this colloquy all evening. I thank the Senator very 
much for allowing me to interject this.
  Mr. REID. As always, I appreciate the statement of my friend from 
Arkansas.
  Mr. President, I see the majority leader in the Chamber. I have 
yielded to everybody else and certainly I am happy to yield to him.
  I am told, Mr. President, that the leaders want to have a unanimous-
consent request entered. I am happy to yield to them without my losing 
the right to the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The majority leader is recognized.
  Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Nevada, Senator 
Reid.

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